North Carolina prison Sgt. Meggan Callahan, who authorities say was killed in an attack by an inmate Wednesday evening, was responding to a fire that had been set inside Bertie Correctional Institution when she was assaulted.
Sources say she was beaten with the fire extinguisher she had brought to douse the fire.
Inmate Craig Wissink, who has been serving a life sentence for murder since 2004, is suspected of attacking Callahan at the eastern North Carolina prison, according to the state Department of Public Safety. He has been charged with first degree murder in connection with Callahan's death.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday ordered all North Carolina flags at state facilities to be lowered to half-staff in tribute to Callahan.
Hired to work for the prisons in 2012, Callahan, 29, was promoted to sergeant in February 2016.
At about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Callahan was beaten in the head with the fire extinguisher that she had brought to fight a fire set inside the prison, sources say. She died less than an hour later, state officials say.
The State Bureau of Investigation and Windsor Police are investigating.
Anthony Jernigan, who heads the SBI office that covers northeastern North Carolina, said Callahan was beaten � and that the incident is captured on prison surveillance video.
State Public Safety Secretary Erik Hooks said the prison system would cooperate with the law enforcement investigation into Callahan's death, and conduct its own investigation as well.
'SHE LOVED TO MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY'
Katie Overton, who had known Callahan since middle school, said that what she cherished most about getting together with her friend was the laughter. Callahan was always making silly faces, joking and doing her utmost to brighten her friends' spirits.
"She loved to make people happy," Overton said. "I didn't know anyone who didn't like her. She was one of those people you were just drawn to."
Overton remembers having a bad day at John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, when � out from behind hallway lockers � Callahan suddenly jumped in front of her and shouted her name. Instantly, the two were consumed with laughter.
Soon after Callahan started working at the prison, Overton recalls telling her: "You've got to be careful. There are some crazy people in there."
As usual, her friend responded with a laugh. "I dare one of them to mess with me!" Overton recalls her saying.
"It's so hard to believe someone would do this to her, of all people," Overton said.
Ron Perry, a former prison captain at Bertie who supervised Callahan, described her as smart, ambitious and quick-witted. "Once you met her, you were a friend," Perry said. "She just had a love for life."
Callahan "was always smiling," said Ricky Nixon, a landlord who owned the house in Edenton where she lived.
"She was a very sweet lady," Nixon said. "Her personality was very jolly."
She lived alone and put in many hours at the prison, Nixon said. "She worked all the time," he said.
Said Gov. Cooper: "I'm deeply saddened by this tragedy. This reminds us of the risks that law enforcement including correctional officers take every day to protect us."
In a news release, Hooks said: "I am deeply saddened and send my heartfelt sympathies to Sergeant Callahan's family. We will do all we can to support her family as well as the correctional family."
Wissink, the inmate suspected of killing Callahan, received a life sentence for the shooting of John Lawrence Pruey during an attempted robbery in Fayetteville in June 2000. He was convicted nearly four years later.
Prosecutors in the 2004 trial said that Wissink and Lawrence Lee Ash went to Pruey's mobile home with the intent to rob him; each defendant contended the other pulled the trigger on the shotgun that killed Pruey.
